INNOVACIÓN: TIPOS Y CARACTERÍSTICAS COMUNES

In question three of the interview, attention was focused on the main topic of the study (FLA), but I asked teachers about their own experiences of FLA when they were learners or as teachers. The aim of the question was to investigate if the teachers have felt FLA before or even now and, if so, what kind of strategies they apply in order to decrease their students’ anxiety. So, the question was: “Could you please tell me something about your own experience as a language learner and about your own anxieties, if any, that you had then or have now?”.

The responses of the teachers indicated that all teachers, expect T6, had experienced FLA when they were students. For example, T1 reported:

When I was a student I loved learning English and experienced some anxieties when some lectures focused on the theoretical and neglected the practical side on the pretext of the shortage of time. At that time I had to work and study by myself and that really raised my anxiety because I was not sure of my way of learning. As a teacher, I rarely feel anxiety.

T1’s experience of anxiety caused by a lack of practice is similar to what a number of the participant students reported above. So, T1 now is aware of the importance of practice in the classroom and presumably knows that when practice is ignored or inadequate then students’ anxiety might increase.

T2 frankly said:

You might get surprised if I told you that I hadn’t experienced anxiety when I was a student except when I forgot or ignored my homework. My anxiety came from the anticipated negative comments which the teacher might make. Generally, I was very good at classes but I didn’t enjoy doing homework. For now, I do feel anxious when I am not well- prepared for my lessons. And I might feel a bit anxious when I know that there are very good students in my class.

As seen in the section above, students become anxious because of the negative evaluation of teachers and peers. Similarly, T2’s comment shows that he had, as a student, been anxious about negative evaluation and that now, as a teacher, he feared students’ negative

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evaluations especially if lessons have not been well prepared or, interestingly, if there are very good students in the classes.

T5 similarly said:

I always blamed myself for being anxious when I was in the university. I spent four years sitting silent in the class, and didn’t speak although mostly I knew the answers. When the teacher asked a question, I hope I spoke. For my high school studies, I encouraged myself to speak in the class even when I wasn’t sure if my answer was correct or not. I didn’t care, I only wanted to speak. I think I was good in presentations, more than in other tasks that required writing or reading, because I had the motivation to speak rightly or wrongly. As a teacher now, I don’t think that I have anxiety.

What became fascinating as I spoke to the teachers was how, if at all, they remembered their own experiences as learners and acted on those to ensure their students did not

experience similar anxieties. T7 talked clearly about her own experience of FLA caused by her teacher’s negative comments, saying:

Yes. When I was a student I really suffered anxiety, sometimes a high level of anxiety. Actually it depends on the situation itself. I remember once that I was chatting with my friend in the class, when the teacher noticed us. She asked me in English, ‘What did you tell your friend? Tell us’. I was so embarrassed and very anxious because I must answer in English in front of the mixed-sex class which consisted of about 50 students. I stood up with difficulty and I couldn’t express myself as I was supposed to do. I wanted to tell her that I asked my friend to pronounce a word in the book, but accidently I found myself saying ‘I asked her to pronounce this word for me’. The teacher then commented badly on my sentence and made the whole group laugh at me. Since that time I was very scared of talking in front of my class or to talk to teachers. Now I might feel a little anxiety when I talk only to native speakers.

As seen above, the teachers’ responses showed that they had, as learners, experienced anxiety caused by different situations occurring in their classrooms. In the last two

comments the participants mentioned teachers’ negative evaluation as a source of anxiety, so these comments indicate that these teachers have experience of and, presumably, an understanding of the effects of anxiety on learning and, perhaps, these teachers might try to make their classes less stressful and anxiety provoking than those they experienced. T6, in contrast, was the only participant who said she had not experienced any FLA.

I never felt anxious when I was a student or now as teacher. When I started studying English I was surprised when I was at the first of the top ten in the first year although I had not made so much effort or prepared for exams. I knew that I would pass but I didn’t expect to be at the top. The result made me more confident that I would finish my BA and MA.

Teachers’ responses showed that three of eight participant teachers experience anxiety now because of teaching high level students or while meeting native speakers and so I was

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interested to see if this experience, or lack of FLA experience, was mirrored in knowledge about FLA or their views of their students’ FLA.